Nokia 6600 Slide

On the back of Nokia's 6600 Fold comes the 6600 Slide: a phone with an almost identical feature set to its flip brother. Available through 3 Mobile in Australia, the 6600 Slide may not offer a host of features, but it still manages to impress thanks to a simple yet effective combination of good aesthetics and ease of use.

The 6600 Slide looks much like a regular slider phone, albeit significantly smaller. This is one of the most compact sliders we've seen, and its sleek curves and gloss black finish are certainly impressive. Like the 6600 Fold, the build quality again feels superb; despite the small size the unit weighs enough to give it a sense of heft.

One issue is the glossy surface of both the display and outer casing. Although it is normal for these types of surfaces to pick up fingerprint marks, the 6600 Slide is one of the worst we've encountered in this regard. The glossy display isn't the best under direct sunlight either. Thankfully, the phone's controls are straightforward. Although the navigational pad is a little small, the keys are comfortable to press and provide good tactility. The same applies to the well-spaced keypad, though the keys extend to the edge of the handset — potentially posing some comfort issues when pressing the bottom row of keys (*, 0, #). Unfortunately, there are no external volume keys.

The 6600 Slide runs the familiar Symbian Series 40 user interface, so those used to Nokia phones will be pleased. The main menu uses a standard 3x3 grid, with a list format used for most submenus. The Slide is slightly slow when browsing through lists, though there is no sign of keystroke lag while text messaging.

The phone's features are relatively standard, with a 3.2-megapixel camera featuring an LED flash being a highlight. A front-mounted VGA camera can be used for video calling across a 3G network. Nokia has included a number of applications with the 6600 Fold, including Nokia Maps, Flickr and a World Clock. There is no GPS receiver built-in, but you can easily connect to an external GPS receiver via Bluetooth if you wish. As it's sold through 3 Mobile in Australia, the handset provides access to the Planet 3 portal, which offers a range of exclusive content and services.

Multimedia features are reasonable thanks to a music player supporting a wide range of formats and an FM radio. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack, but an included adapter allows the use of regular headphones. For extra storage, 3 includes a 512MB microSD card; annoyingly, however, its slot is located beneath the battery.